Why is everyone, except apparently C2021 and I, assuming these PRP injections weren't a part of the original medical plan in regards to getting TL back as soon as possible?
The platelet replacement isn't necessarily unusual.
But, there's context here. There was the original surgery, which we were told Rob would completely recover from within about 4 - 6 weeks. Then, there were the multiple months of waiting, in which the media reported that Rob was on the road to recovery and should be fully healed. Then, there was a report in late September that Rob would need additional surgery and would be out 8 weeks (so, around November 15 - December 15, roughly). Now, we're hearing "second half of the season", which is open for interpretation. If literal, it means January 11 or later.
His recovery time keeps being pushed back. That's not fantastic. The use of platelet therapy in and of itself could mean that the injury is slow to heal due to blood flow issues (and didn't Williams have some pre-draft circulatory concerns -- PAES?), or it could be nothing at all.
Conversely, since we have no idea what doctors were saying from the very beginning, a very, very plausible scenario is the doctors gave TL a couple options from the get go.
Option 1: Wait for the swelling to go down and go in for a full repairing and cleaning of the meniscus and take a slow approach on physical therapy missing the playoffs and setting up for a return fully healthy to start next year....or .....
Option #2: Go in immediately and do a quick cleanup and get you back to play in the playoffs knowing it won't be 100% right but if you can put up with the pain, you can play and then we see what happens from there. It's possible we could clean it all up and you can rest and recover over the summer and when you resume basketball activities we can re-assess. It's probable you will need a follow up surgery that could mean missing some of next season but we can give you some PRP treatments to quicken the recovery period. It's also possible, though less likely, you will be fine and ready to go without a follow up procedure.
And TL chose option #2.
Just because the reporting comes out sporadically doesn't mean that this wasn't foreseen and planned from the very first diagnosis.
I remember when I had back surgery. My doctor's laid out the plan including physical therapy but also made me aware that if things didn't go 100% there were several other options and procedures that could be done to minimize pain and correct the issue long term. But they wanted to try the least invasive method first.
This is very common. If doctor's laid things out like this for me, a regular guy, I imagine such things were planned like this for a professional athlete.
